Thanksgiving and the Mysterious Three Sisters – In the United States, the fourth Thursday of November is when we celebrate Thanksgiving. You may not think the first Thanksgiving is part of an ancient mystery—but it is!
Exploring ancient mysteries has taken me to remote locations and ancient ruins around the world. For many people, this evokes images of Indiana Jones uncovering archaeological wonders, hidden tombs, and glittering treasures. However, not all mysteries involve ruins, and not all treasures glitter like gold.
In grade school, I was told the first Thanksgiving involved kind Pilgrims who invited peaceful Native Americans to a bountiful feast to give thanks for the food and their friendship. The menu included turkey, deer, fish, and the staple vegetables corn, beans, and squash which the Native Americans called the Three Sisters.
After dinner, the Pilgrims and Native Americans all lived happily ever after. Except what really happened is edgier and more interesting. When the Pilgrims from England landed at Plymouth, in 1620, the Native Americans viewed them as invaders. However, the English possessed guns and cannons. Chief Ousamequin of the Wampanoag saw them as potentially powerful allies in his war against a rival indigenous people the Narragansetts.
The Pilgrims may have had guns, but they were starving. Chief Ousamequin realized food was his leverage in negotiating a military alliance. He sent Squanto to teach the Pilgrims how to cultivate crops. Squanto spoke English since he was once an English slave. After escaping slavery, he returned to his people who considered him untrustworthy. Squanto used his role as an interpreter with the Pilgrims to gain their trust and empower himself. His devious reputation was well deserved. A few years later the Wampanoag foiled Squanto’s plot to incite an insurrection and seize power as chief.
Leaving colonial-era politics aside, Squanto taught the Pilgrims about the Three Sisters of corn, beans, and squash. When planted together in the same hole, the result was three strong and abundant crops. This happens because the Three Sisters form a symbiotic relationship which deters pests and weeds while enriching the soil for each other. Corn offers the bean vines sturdy support. Beans extract nitrogen from the air and infuse it into the soil, which benefits all Three Sisters. As the bean vines intertwine between the corn and squash, they hold all three together.
The large prickly squash leaves protect their sisters by warding off raccoons and other herbivores who avoid squash’s hostile leaves. Squash leaves also shade the roots of the Three Sisters, which keeps the soil moist and prevents weeds.
If planted individually, each crop would require a separate field. However, when the Three Sisters are planted together, the yield of food is triple what it would be if they were planted separately. The Three Sisters is agricultural synergy because the combination of the three is greater than the sum of the individual parts.
In our modern world, we may take food for granted, but for the starving Pilgrims, it was a treasure beyond measure. The Pilgrims happily accepted the treasure of the Three Sisters in exchange for a military alliance with Chief Ousamequin.
So, how are the Three Sisters and Thanksgiving part of an ancient mystery?
When Columbus “discovered” the Americas, indigenous people had been living there for at least 12,000 years. Early European accounts colored Native Americans as primitive, yet the opposite is true. Indigenous societies thrived due to their ability to cultivate crops, and the foundation of all civilizations is food production. Surplus food creates surplus time, which can be devoted to other projects.
In what is now the Southwestern United States, native people lived in multistoried adobe buildings. The Mayans and Aztecs of Central America and the Incas of Peru built massive stone cities, pyramids, and highways. They developed an advanced understanding of mathematics, engineering, and astronomy. They created magnificent works of art. The vast Inca Empire which stretched from Venezuela to Argentina, was as large as the Roman Empire.
While examining the Mississippian people who erected the Ocmulgee Mounds in Georgia, I discovered they cultivated corns, beans, and squash by planting them in the same hole—ergo the Three Sisters! And they started doing this around 1,000 B.C.! While studying Cherokee sites in North Carolina, and then hundreds of miles north to Iroquois sites in Upstate New York, I found they too planted the Three Sisters. Since all of these cultures were located on the eastern edge of North America, which had a temperate to cold climate, it seemed logical to conclude over the centuries they most likely shared this agricultural knowledge.
My travels then took me to Sedona, Arizona to Honanki ruins of elaborate multistoried dwellings built into a rock face. Petroglyphs, images of their still undeciphered language are carved into the cliffs surrounding the ruins.
The Honanki civilization thrived between 1130-1230 A.D. but they abandoned the area seven hundred years ago. Their water supply dried up, and archaeological evidence remains of their food supply which was the Three Sisters! The Honanki were desert dwellers over two thousand miles from the Mississippians and Cherokee peoples of Georgia and even further than that from the Iroquois of New York. Yet they too cultivated the Three Sisters. Was this just a coincidence?
While filming a documentary at Mayan ruins in a dense Yucatan rainforest I encountered the “coincidence” of the Three Sisters again. How did diverse people from Central America to Canada learn how to cultivate the Three Sisters? Through my experience as a medium, I’ve come to believe there is no such thing as a coincidence. I’ve also learned the more that is revealed about one mystery leads to other mysteries.
Some archaeologists theorize the Three Sisters was a Mayan discovery. This major discovery required careful observation and a sophisticated understanding of agriculture. Who was this ancient agricultural genius who figured this out over three thousand years ago? Then, how did jungle-dwelling Mayans spread that knowledge across deserts, mountains, oceans, and snowy forests to people thousands of miles away?
My theory is a complex ancient Native American intercontinental trade and communication network existed ranging from modern-day Canada to Argentina until it was destroyed by the European conquest of the Americas. So, where is the evidence for this ancient trade network? When studying ancient mysteries even minor details may be a significant piece of evidence. Thanks to both Native Americans and Pilgrims, perhaps a piece of that evidence known as The Three Sisters, was on the menu of the first Thanksgiving.
Mark Anthony, JD Psychic Explorer® (The Psychic Lawyer) is a fourth-generation psychic medium and Oxford-educated trial attorney. Mark travels to mystical locations in remote corners of the world to examine Ancient Mysteries and Supernatural Phenomena. Mark Anthony is a VIP Executive Contributor for BEST HOLISTIC LIFE Magazine and the author of the multiple award-winning Pulitzer considered best seller THE AFTERLIFE FREQUENCY. His other bestsellers are EVIDENCE OF ETERNITY and NEVER LETTING GO. To schedule a reading with Mark, visit his website: http://www.AfterlifeFrequency.com.
For a FREE reading with Mark Anthony, call into his show “The Psychic & The Doc” every Thursday. For information about how to tune in, visit http://www.AfterlifeFrequency.com
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